Exclusive: Flowers wins Wonder bread with unchallenged bid - source

By Martinne Geller

Published February 27, 2013

Reuters

Flowers Foods Inc is set to buy Hostess bread brands including Wonder bread for $360 million after no other bidder stepped up to make a competing offer, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The bankrupt bakery company was set to run an auction on Thursday for the brands, which also include Butternut, Home Pride, Merita and Nature's Pride, but there will be no auction since there were no other bids, the source said.

There will be an auction for the Beefsteak brand, for which Flowers bid $30 million, since Hostess received a higher bid from Mexico's Grupo Bimbo , said the source, who declined to be named as the process is private.

The deal with Flowers is still subject to approval by a bankruptcy court.

Flowers agreed in January to be the "stalking horse" bidder, which set a floor for the bidding and was subject to a court-supervised auction.

Hostess declined to comment. Flowers and Bimbo were not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in New York; editing by Soyoung Kim and Matthew Lewis)